Hello and Welcome fellow memory addicts to my 12th OCing Report!
--- Part1: Introduction. ---
Less than two weeks ago, I have received from Corsair a brand new 2x1GB DDR2 kit for evaluation. This time, it's the highest rated (and most expensive at the same time, hehe) representative of the new "DOMINATOR" line - TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF. There are at least two reasons this memory stands out, before even getting into testing it:
whooping stock rating of DDR2-1111 12-4-4-4.0 @ 2.40v
intriguing looks with an ingenious new cooling solution behind it called "Dual-path Heat Xchange (DHX)"
So, what's up with the new looks, you'd ask? Well, here's what Corsair engineers came up with. In short, heat generated by memory chips on a module is being dissipated through convection (by means of heatinks attached to the back of memory ICs) and conduction (through solder balls of BGA package, into copper traces and planes of PCB). So, Corsair engineers took their proven PCB design and modified it. They added a bit to its height, then extended above mentioned copper traces to that new area, finished them off with large copper pads on both sides of PCB and slapped a nickel-plated heatsink on those pads. After that, another aluminium heatsink equipped with fins at the top has covered memory ICs.
To aid in heat dissipation, Corsair wants to convince enthusiasts to throw away 80-120mm fans we've all being using so far, and added their own little cooler. It consists of three 40mm quiet fans and its housing is mounted on top of the modules with help of "tabs" on both sides of DIMM sockets. Pretty neat, eh?
I have borrowed some of the pictures from Corsair's website describing DOMINATOR's design and compiled them below. I think they explain the idea quite well.
--- Part2: Photo shoot. ---
Memory came packaged in a white cardboard box. Both modules were tightly fitted in a foam mold and covered with another layer of foam. That makes for some good protection. Cooling unit was sitting in a separate small box, also secured with foam iside.
Heatsinks sport a large DOMINATOR logo, stretched across whole the length of the module. Those pictures also allow to take a closer look at the fins themselves, which increase surface area and help dissipate heat a bit more efficiently, compared to standard solution.
Finally, added airflow with help of a cooling unit, equipped with 3 small, quiet fans.
Regarding installation of air flow unit... I'd definetely advise to install it before putting your video card in. Just less headache and that way installation is a brisk. Just start from one side of DIMM sockets, strech it over and clip it on the other. Plug it in and voila! There are four thumbscrews on top of it used to tighten the clips to make a good fit (or so I think it's the purpose, hehe) but I seemed to have a small issue with one of them - it just wouldn't fit right, therefore preventing from going all the way in. Either I messed it up or it's a minor glitch. After installation, there is still some clearance between side of the cooler and a video card, although minimal.
I did not and I'm not really going to remove heatspreaders to see which of the Micron's ICs are these built with. But I'm leaning towards highly screened DDR2-667 CAS5 components, which would translate to D9GMH. Don't hold me on this, though. But from the severe shortage of Micron's highest bin we've been observing lately, it would make more sense to try to squeeze out the last drop out of it's more visible brother, D9GMH. Which, by the way, does not necessarily have to have less potential than D9GKX. Corsair says, chips that pass testing and later become 8888C4DF, account for less than 5% of the total and that is clearly visible at the checkout
--- Part3: Test setup and how I decided to test. ---
Testbed onfiguration Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, cooled w/ "402XTREME" single stage phase cooler by Chilly1
ASUS P5B Deluxe (Intel 965P), vcore/vdimm/vmch modded, BIOS 0711 official
Corsair TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF 2x1024MB
ATI Radeon PCI 7000 and EVGA 7800GTX KO @ 490+40/1390, ForceWare 84.21
Windows XP SP2 with all current updates.
My idea was, to test this RAM in two stages. First, provide it only with as much voltage as Corsair guarantees it for (2.40v + 5% = ~2.50v). After that, I'd go for "freestyle" but still within a reason - up to 2.80v. Each of those stages will be divided to incremental voltage steps starting at 2.22v. At this point, I have done most of the first stage testing and some of the second. I will be updating this OCing Report accordingly.
As all my OCing Reports, they dono't focus on scores but pure OCing potential and stability at OCed settings. That does not mean that I'm slacking on resulting times or scores, though, hehe. I will be running:
mandatory and beloved SuperPi 1.5 XS 32M calculation, in a single and dual instance fashion,
2hrs of ORTHOS Large FFT at priority 9 with 1.40GB used,
Everest Ultimate 3.50 Cache and Memory Benchmark (Read, Write, Latency),
Well, the time has come and few days ago I have received brand spanking new eVGA 680i SLI motherboard. Probably most of you guys already heard about it's new memory overclocking features - "freestyle" memory clock setting and ability to run at Command Rate 1T.
Few days into some testing reveals what few (mostly sierra_bound and Kunaak...) have already said earlier - the board brings DDR2-1300 to the table, just as P5B Deluxe did with for DDR2-1200. But from what I have noticed, board really spreads its wings as soon as CAS5 is selected. At x-4-4-4.0 and x-3-3-3.0 it allowed for a bit higher memory frequency compared to P5B Deluxe (but still, higher) but for stable operation into 1300MHz territory, CAS5 was needed.
A propos, as you have already seen from others testing this new chipset, at this moment motherboard is not so hot as far as pulling records at large calculations of SPi (north of 8M). It's lagging slightly behind 965P, but every other benchmark I tried was at least on par with 965P, with memory bandwidth and latency results in favor of 680i SLI. So, I'm not sure what the deal is
Anyway, off we go with an update
Testbed onfiguration Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, cooled w/ Intel stock cooler
eVGA 122-CK-NF68-AR (nForce 680i SLI), BIOS P20 official
Corsair TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF 2x1024MB
EVGA 7800GTX KO @ 490+40/1390, ForceWare 84.21
Windows XP SP2 with all current updates.
Thanks again for the extensive testing. DD2-1200 Orthos-stable is nothing to sneeze at. The Corsairs are very close to my TeamGroups, maybe a tad better. But I'm happy with my RAM, since it cost a lot less. Personally I prefer the naked look of my modules. They came spreader-less.
I know Corsair did extensive binning with this RAM. But I wish they'd drop the price a little.
Last edited by sierra_bound; 10-29-2006 at 10:02 PM.
sweet definitely highly binned ICs to hit 600+ mhz at 4-4-4 timings at 2.51v! my Gskill PC6400PHU2 D9GMH 0629 batch only do 563mhz 4-4-4 at 2.54v on P5W DH 975x board.
Great testing as usual bachus.
I have been waiting a long time before somebody around here got a set of these and tested them.
Even though the price is pretty steep, you are pretty much guaranteed great results.
"Memory came packaged in a white cardboard box. Both modules were tightly fitted in a foam mold and covered with another layer of foam. That makes for some good protection. Cooling unit was sitting in a separate small box, also secured with foam iside."
The pirate ship takes no prisoners with this kit.
__________________
AMD Phenom II 940BE | DFI LP DK790B-M2RS | Echo audio Layla 3G | 8GB Corsair C5 PC6400 | Sapphire HD3870 with HR-03+ | Genelec 8030A | Samsung 244T | Antec P182 gun metal | Thermal right Ultra120 | UPS: APC BACK-UPS RS 1500VA | Windows Vista Ultimate 64 | DAW: Ableton/Sonar | WAN: 100/10Mbit/s | OS on: WD Velocioraptor Storage: Rocket Raid 2300 PCI-E + 4*400GB Samsung T133 @Raid5. Firewall: Tyan Tomcat 945GM | Core Duo T2600 | 2*512MB ram | Nexus PM PSM-5000 | Picu PSU.
"People who enjoy waving flags
don't deserve to have one".
I have to agree the preceding comments "nice job."
Other sites reported problems with Corsairs' cooling solution with respect to its size. Were you able to use it with a full size video card on your board? At 2.5 Vdimm did it keep the ram cool to the touch?
Put i still think the cellshock memories are the best dimms... at 2.45 1150.. and they can give more with more voltage..... i'll test them this week with 2.7v...
The price as everyone said is horrible... and for a little bit less performance, u can buy almos 4gb of cellshock..
The cooler for the ram.... i think it's nice... it can avoid the 120mm fan pointed to the memories and mosfets..
DOMINATOR CAS4 tested -> Corsair TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF OCing Report (965P & 680i SLI)!!
, DFI Infinity 965P-S (testing) 
, E6750 es 
)
Linear Mode
